This invention is related to removing wrinkles from fabrics or clothing, using a velour covered board and the operator's hands. Neither heat nor an iron is used.
A wrinkled article of clothing or fabric appears to have a memory that remembers where the wrinkle occurs. This memory can readily be demonstrated by taking a wrinkled handkerchief and flattening it out with one's hands on a smooth surface. As long as the hands hold the handkerchief in a flattened out position. the wrinkles appear to have gone away. However as soon as the hands are removed the handkerchief immediately contracts to its former, wrinkled state. In short, flattening out the wrinkled handkerchief did not erase the wrinkle memory.
The time honored technique of pressing wrinkled fabrics or clothing calls for an ironing board and a hot iron to remove the wrinkles from the fabric's memory. While this method certainly works, energy is needed to heat the iron, and the iron itself is heavy and laborious to use after a time. Even if the ironing board and iron are small in size, portability is hampered by the need for energy to heat the iron. The iron and ironing board technique uses brute force to erase the wrinkle memory: the heat and pressure sufficiently rearrange the fibers in the fabric during the hot pressing process. In short, a new pattern is impressed into the fabric's memory . . . a flat, ironed pattern.